com.google.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay Copy

TetheringResOverlay, a Runtime Resource Overlay (RRO) that supplies device-specific configuration to the Tethering module rather than an app in its own right. The Tethering module ships as an APEX, so per-device values reach it through an overlay installed on another partition instead of by editing the module. The module declares an overlayable set named TetheringConfig, and an overlay on the product, system or vendor partition may override the values in it: the interface name patterns for USB, NCM, Wi-Fi, WiGig, Wi-Fi P2P and Bluetooth tethering, the DHCP range handed to tethered clients, the upstream selection lists, the eBPF offload switch, and the carrier hotspot entitlement and provisioning configuration. AOSP's own emulator build carries the same kind of component in device/generic/goldfish/rro_overlays/TetheringOverlay, whose manifest targets the tethering package with android:targetName set to TetheringConfig and overrides the Wi-Fi tether interface patterns. The name mirrors the module it overlays. This Google-named variant pairs with the Google-signed module com.google.android.networkstack.tethering, documented separately on this site, and the AOSP-keyed equivalent is com.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay. In our sample it is signed by the device maker's own platform key rather than by Google, across Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, TCL, OPPO and several smaller makes, which fits an overlay built as part of each device image. It has no launcher icon and is not user-facing. Version note: the Tethering module (com.android.tethering) is in APEX format and is available for devices running Android 11 or higher, and from Android 12 the ConnectivityService code was added to the same APEX, widening the module's scope into a connectivity module. This overlay therefore belongs to the Android 11 and later module layout. One inconsistency is worth flagging rather than smoothing over: AOSP's Tethering page states under Customization that "The Tethering module doesn't support customization", yet the same page describes overriding config_tether_enable_bpf_offload by RRO, and the module itself ships the TetheringConfig overlayable that packages of this name target. The workable reading is that the module's behaviour is not open to redefinition while its device-specific configuration is expected to arrive by overlay, but the documentation does not say so in as many words. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no role in enrolment or policy. It is part of how the platform learns which interfaces on this hardware are tethering interfaces, so disabling or removing it risks breaking hotspot and USB or Bluetooth tethering rather than locking them down. To stop users sharing the connection, use the EMM's tethering and hotspot restrictions and leave this package in place.

• Tethering - Android Open Source Project →
• Change the value of an app's resources at runtime (RROs) - Android Open Source Project →
• Tethering overlayable.xml (packages/modules/Connectivity) - Android source →
• TetheringOverlay AndroidManifest.xml (device/generic/goldfish) - Android source →
• TetheringOverlay config.xml (device/generic/goldfish) - Android source →
• Package provenance for com.google.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay - Android System App Database →

• Re-signed by each device maker with its own platform key - 12 different certificates appear across 8 device makers in our sample. That is the signature of a stock AOSP/system package every OEM builds and signs itself, not a single maker's or a third party's preinstall. These are platform-level keys: they also sign the Android framework itself.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 1 permissions: 1 runtime (user-granted).
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.